Tag Archives: aging

AND THE GUILT.

dementia, , , , , ,

If you’re caring for a partner with dementia, hear this: You are not alone in your guilt.

You feel guilty.

Guilty for feeling lonely, even while your spouse sits right beside you.
Guilty for missing the conversations you used to have with your partner.
Guilty for wanting just one day when you don’t have to be the responsible one.
Guilty for snapping, for sighing, for thinking, I can’t do this another day.

Sometimes the guilt cuts even deeper:

  • Guilt over placing your spouse in a memory care community.
  • Guilt for making promises you have not been able to keep.
  • Guilt because your wedding vows echo in your ears—in sickness and in health—and you feel like you’re failing.

You are not failing.

Dementia can be a cruel thief. It steals conversations, shared memories, inside jokes, quiet comfort, and the daily rituals that make a marriage feel like home.

But here’s what it can’t steal: The fact that you have loved, and that you still love, even if that love looks different now.

Your love isn’t gone. It’s changed. But it’s still there.

Placing your spouse in care doesn’t mean you’ve stopped loving them. It means you’re protecting them. It means you’re protecting both of you.

Needing space doesn’t mean you’re abandoning them. It means you’re human.

You are grieving losses that happen while your spouse is still physically here—a grief that’s invisible to many around you. The stuff that makes your heart drop….it doesn’t even make sense to other people. And maybe you’ve stopped even trying to explain it to them. This is your journey, and it’s unique.

So if guilt is knocking on your door today, gently remind yourself:

You’re still here.
You’re still loving.
You’re still trying.

That’s enough.

And you deserve compassion, too.

More Education = Better Care!

dementia, , , , ,

I am happy to do dementia trainings for various sectors, but I am always honored to be asked to train staff at nursing homes and memory care communities.

I am honored because the employees I work with are generally CNAs or resident aides, and I would argue that how well they do their jobs is one of the most important factors–if not the most important factor–in quality of care.

Has it ever occurred to you in nursing homes and assisted livings that the people who are paid the least have the most direct contact with the residents?

I am continually amazed at the varying levels of dementia knowledge of employees.

I am surprised by how much people know. I am surprised how little people know.

And level of knowledge, anecdotally, doesn’t seem to be related to experience in the field.

In the state where I live, employees who work with those living with dementia have to do an online module to learn about dementia and meet the state requirement. And that’s it.

If you or a loved one are considering care, a great question to ask is, “What type of ongoing dementia education does your staff receive?“

Research shows that facilities that invest in more dementia education for staff provide better care to residents. That’s not surprising, is it?

Dementia education….works.

Training programs for staff have been shown to improve staff-resident interactions, increase staff empathy for residents, and create more meaningful engagement with those living with dementia.

Dementia education increases staff knowledge, improves attitudes toward people with dementia, and boosts confidence of those providing care. They not only benefit residents but also positively impact staff by increasing job satisfaction and reducing burnout. 

If you want to look at the research studies, let me know, but the evidence is overwhelming.

Dementia education is linked to improved dementia care.

There is research about what types of education and delivery methods are most effective. When I plan a training, I go back to this research in designing something to meet the needs of the facility. I don’t deliver a cookie cutter training.

Not surprisingly, standard online modules (aka cookie cutter trainings) are not recommended as the best form of dementia education. However, I understand that facilities are challenged by staff turnover. I can’t come to your facility every week to train new employees. I get it.

Facilities are doing the best they can with the challenges and limitations that exist in the industry. Long term care is incredibly complicated.

Dietary staff, CNAs, resident aides, maintenance, and everyone else….You are doing a hard job and we need to give you the tools to succeed. And I want you to enjoy the important work that you do!

A friend of mine recently went with her father to explore an assisted living that serves those living with dementia. Her father is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and wants to put a plan in place. (Can I just say–good for him!)

The assisted living was beautiful. A grand lobby. An enviable coffee bar for the residents. The resident rooms were spacious.

My friend, at my suggestion, asked what type of ongoing dementia education is required for staff.

She was told that they do an online module within 30 days of their start, and then yearly they must complete more online training. That’s in compliance with the state law.

My friend asked if they had opportunities for ongoing education. The response was that there was a lot of stuff out there on Tik-Tok now that shows how to “treat dementia people.”

After more conversations with other employees from the community, she was not convinced that providing excellent dementia care was a priority.

She heard some of the employees using non-dementia friendly language in chatting with her.

“Dementia person”

“Dementia sufferer”

“Senile”

People who work in facilities like this should be educated on dementia friendly language.

Despite the beauty of the building, they decided it wasn’t a fit.

While it is frustrating that some nursing home employees have a low level of knowledge about dementia, that lack of knowledge isn’t their fault. People know what we teach them. Let’s teach them.

Here’s the thing about work trainings. They can be dry and boring. I promise that I am not dry and boring. I may be weird and loud but not dry and boring.

I want employees to leave MORE excited about working with residents. I want to teach them to find the joy in their jobs and celebrate the wins. I want them to gain confidence and know that their employers in investing in them.

It’s not just about what I do, of course. There are other qualified individuals who do dementia education. (Make sure you check their qualifications and education!)

Turnover among nursing home employees in challenging for communities. If we can get people to enjoy working with those living with dementia, turnover decreases, the facility saves money, and staff provides better care.

To communities that make continuing education a priority…you deserve recognition. People should know that you are taking steps to invest in and educate your employees. Please talk about this when you market your community. It’s important.

Your commitment to education and, consequently, providing better care is admirable.

Dr. Eshbaugh’s Christmas Letter (aka Give Yourself a Break and Change Your Expectations)

dementia, , , ,

Dear Friends,

This is the closest thing to a Christmas letter I will write this year, and it is to those of you who live with dementia and those of you who are caregivers.

First of all, it doesn’t matter to me what you celebrate. Hanukkah. (Obviously I don’t celebrate Hanukkah because I looked up how to spell it and it still doesn’t look quite right.) Christmas. Winter Solstice. Festivus. National Eggnog Day. Maybe you don’t celebrate anything, and that’s fine with me. Maybe you usually celebrate something but don’t feel like celebrating this year. I’m not here to judge.

If you choose to celebrate something this year, I encourage you to be flexible. I encourage you to be patient with yourself and with others. I encourage you to accept that life is changing. Perhaps some holiday traditions will continue, whereas others will not. That’s okay.

Remember you can say no.

Yes, I am talking to YOU. You can say no.

If someone invites you to an event, you get to decide whether that event is going to work for you. Maybe it will be too loud, too crowded, too long of a drive, too time-consuming, too intense. Maybe it’s at night and your loved one with dementia typically goes to bed early. Perhaps you’re a caregiver and you just don’t have the energy. All of those are legitimate reasons to say no.

You can say yes–and then change your yes to a no when your loved one with is having a rough day. If someone judges you, they don’t understand dementia. People living with dementia have bad days, and on bad days some things might just not be possible.

Church services, especially crowded ones, can be stressful for someone with dementia. (Not to mention that whole COVID thing, right?) Can you live stream the service? Or organize a short candlelight service for your family at home? Maybe your family has gone to Midnight Mass every Christmas for 40 years. Perhaps that just doesn’t work this year. It’s okay.

Maybe you don’t need to volunteer to host the family holiday party. You say you’ve hosted it for 30 years? Sounds like you’ve paid your dues and it’s someone else’s turn. You know what’s great about NOT hosting? You can leave!

On that note….

Have an exit plan. If someone with dementia is having an off day, they may only be able to stay 30 minutes at family Christmas. This is why you always drive separately. Don’t ride with Aunt Jean and Uncle Tony. They might want to stay all day. Don’t let anyone guilt you for an early exit. I give you permission to pull one of those sneaky exits where you don’t say goodbye. If you need to leave, just leave.

Is there a place you can crash for a quick break or nap if the gathering is overwhelming? Can you escape to the basement for a deep breath if the grandkids are out of control with their ridiculously noisy and obnoxious toys? Don’t be afraid to step away. Keep in mind that a gathering like this can be anxiety-provoking for someone with dementia who may not recognize everyone (who are these people and why do they want to hug me?) and be sensitive to noise.

Giving cash or a gift card always works if you aren’t up for shopping. It is okay to order pizza on Christmas Eve. I am guessing no one will miss your holiday card that much if you don’t send one. And those delightful platters of high calorie treats that you bake and deliver to your neighbors? They will survive without them.

Not that I speak from experience or anything, but if you aren’t up for wrapping gifts, gift bags are great. I’ve also been known to just hand people their gifts in a plastic Target bag. Tacky? Maybe. But I’ve never had anyone refuse the gift because it wasn’t wrapped.

Maybe this is the first year that you celebrate the holidays at the nursing home with Grandma because taking her home causes too much confusion. Two or three of you visit at a time. Having a large group seems to cause anxiety. And then you have your family Christmas bash at home without her. You feel like an awful person, but you’re not. Sometimes your best option just isn’t all that good. We do the best we can.

So that’s it. Give yourself a break. Change your expectations. And, happiest possible holidays!

XOXOXO,

Elaine

Following Up in Dementialand

cancer, caregiving, death, dementia, dying, , , , ,

Several months ago I wrote a blog post about why I dislike the movie, The Notebook. In short, I take issue with how it presents Alzheimer’s. On an unrelated note, I think it promotes stalking as romance.

You can read all about it here:

https://welcometodementialand.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/my-least-favorite-dementialand-movie/

I had no idea the Facebook messages and emails I would get after this post. Sure, some people agreed with me. Other people sent me comments like:

“Chill, honey, it’s just a movie.”

“So what if it’s not realistic. It’s a damn movie. Relax.”

“You don’t seem to understand the purpose of a movie. Why do people have to overanalyze everything and take away all the fun?” 

I was surprised that this post caused a stir, but I’ve realized that I’m a poor judge of which of my blog posts people will be controversial. I never would have guessed that my post about The Notebook would earn me the most hate of all 50-some posts I have written. People acted like I was killing kittens. And I can laugh about this now…

I predicted that Monday’s post about care partners who pray for their loved ones to pass away would offend someone. I thought I’d get a few emails from people who didn’t like the way I presented this, or maybe were just uncomfortable with the whole premise.

I got a little bit of feedback on Monday morning, mostly from people who said they could relate to the post. A few people thanked me, and in general people said reading the piece made them feel a bit more comfortable with their experience of wishing a loved one would die–rather than continue to live a life that they were pretty certain wasn’t worth living. I went for a run and checked my email when I got back. And whoa.

I had a lot of emails. Nineteen to be exact. They were from individuals who had experiences to share that related to the blog piece. Many of the emails were from care partners or former care partners of those living with dementia. However, quite a few of the emails were from those who had lost a loved one to cancer or another illness. And I thank those of you who gave me permission to share parts of your emails and Facebook messages. (A few people also posted very insightful comments on the actual blog post, if you are interested.)

Here are excerpts from the messages I received:

“My mother in law lives with us and has vascular dementia. I hate to say it, but I’m ready for her to pass away. It’d be different if I thought she had any joy in her life now. But I don’t think she does. There is a time when somebody is just done. She’s done. But her body is still here. I haven’t told my husband this. I don’t know if he’s there yet.”

“I have felt guilty for years because my mom was dying of cancer and I wished it would just be over. I prayed for her suffering to be done. Then when she died I felt awful. Not because she was gone but because I prayed for her to be gone. But she was suffering. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

“My mom has Alzheimer’s and she has had it for about 10 years. The first 5 or so years she was happy. Now she’s not. She lives in terror. I know it must be scary for her. It’s scary for me. I just want it to be over. I want the nursing home to call me and tell me she’s gone. When the phone rings, I hope they are calling to say she’s gone. Maybe that’s awful, but it’s the truth.”

“My dad doesn’t want to be here anymore. He has cancer and Alzheimer’s. We don’t make our animals suffer. We know the kindest thing is to end their suffering. But people have to suffer until the bitter end and we have to watch it….Dad asks me to help him end it in a joking way. He says I should just shoot him and laughs. But I wish I really could.”

“For many years I have felt bad about praying for my mom to die when she was at the end of her life. The doctor kept giving her antibiotics and meds. I wanted them to stop giving her the medicines but I didn’t know how to tell them that and was scared they’d think I was a bad person. So I kept giving her all these medicines but hoping they wouldn’t work…Reading this made me feel more normal.”

“My mom had Alzheimer’s and I prayed she’d die for over a year. After she finally passed, I missed being in dementialand. I guess I got used to living there. I also felt useless like no one needed me. I didn’t know how much I needed to be needed.”

“Amen. My husband is at the end of dementia and has COPD. He is tired. I am tired. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, he doesn’t know what’s going on. I want to fast forward time. If I had a remote control I’d hit fast forward. Then I think about how I know that after he’s gone I will want to rewind but still can’t stop from wanting to hit fast forward. Don’t know how to change how I feel.”

“I thought I would feel sad when my sister died of Alzheimer’s but I didn’t. I really just felt mostly relief. But I still feel horrible that I felt relief. I feel like a good sister would’ve been sad. This blog post helps a little.”

I usually feel good when I write something that people “get.” If people say they can relate to something I write, I feel like I’ve been successful. However, I didn’t get that feeling as I read through people’s comments on this one.

I just felt…sad.

Praying for the End in Dementialand

alzheimer's, caregiver, caregiving, death, dementia, dying, , , , , , ,

I was 23 when my grandpa passed away. He had a lot of chronic health conditions, including diabetes, and he’d recently had a leg amputated. The last time I saw him in person, he kept calling the guy I was dating at the time “Steve” (although his name was not Steve) and he was very grateful to “Steve” for helping him figure out the remote control to his crappy TV at the hospital. The last time I talked to him on the phone, he was telling me about a church picnic that he had attended. He mentioned he brought brownies in a basket. There had been no church picnic.

I remember sitting on the bed in my small grad school apartment with my black cat, Teela, as my mom called me to tell he that he died. It seems surreal that I still have Teela (although now she has three doggie brothers and a feline sister–oh, and a dad!) and am looking at her in her kitty condo as I type this today. It seems so long ago, but I guess it wasn’t that long ago because I still have Teela–although she is a bit heavier and moves slower…I could say the same about myself though.

I asked my mom if she thought I should call my grandma to express my condolences. To be honest, I wanted her to tell me not to bother Grandma. I was a little nervous to make the call. I didn’t know what to say. When Grandma answered the phone, she launched into a story about the Red Roof Inn she was staying at near my grandpa’s hospital. She had spent a lot of nights there, and they were kind enough to not charge her for the night my grandpa died. She was absolutely overwhelmed by their kindness. I think of this every time I see a Red Roof Inn to this day.

I didn’t really know what to say when she paused after praising the employees of the Red Roof Inn, so I blurted out, “I’m sorry about Grandpa.”

“Oh, honey,” she said. “I was praying for the Lord to take him. I knew he wasn’t gonna be strong enough to come home after losing that leg. It was the best thing.”

The best thing?

At that point in time, I had this idea that we all should fight for our lives to the bitter end. I saw death as failure, not as a natural part of life. And I wasn’t sure what I thought of someone hoping and praying for a loved one to pass away.

In a way, I was glad my grandma accepted my grandpa’s death on some level. On the other hand, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the notion that my grandma prayed for my grandpa to die. I can assure you that the experiences I have had between then and now have absolutely allowed me to wrap my mind around this.

I was speaking with a woman recently whose husband has a type of dementia that can progress very quickly. I pointed out that this rare type of dementia has a shorter life expectancy than Alzheimer’s and most other types of dementia. I had only known this woman for about…3 minutes…so I worried that I’d said too much and was perhaps being a bit pessimistic and blunt when I had no idea where she was at with this.

“Oh, thank God,” she said. “The quicker this progresses, the better.” Then she looked horrified, like she couldn’t believe she said this to me.

There are many people who live well with dementia. Unfortunately, her husband is currently not one of them. And she wants this over as soon as possible, for him and for her.

Then she asked, “Am I a bad person for wishing he dies sooner rather than later?”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. It seemed like a question for a ethicist, pastor, or philosopher rather than for me. All I could do was reassure her that her feelings were normal considering the circumstances. She was absolutely right that he seems to have little quality of life. He spends most of his day in their bed–but with his eyes open–and he gets upset if she tries to turn on the lights or the TV. He recently told their kids that he was sorry he ever had them, and he had even become aggressive toward one of his grandchildren. She also pointed out that he’d be really upset if he realized that all the money he had worked so hard to save would likely be eaten up by a nursing home.

So, are you a bad person for hoping that your loved one with late-stage dementia passes away rather than lingers on? Absolutely not. This is normal. It’s also normal that you might wish for them to pass away in one moment but in the next minute be willing to do anything to keep them on this earth.

And when they do die, it is normal to feel guilty that you wished that they would pass away and then want them back. It is normal to feel a variety of emotions when a loved one with dementia dies, but one of those emotions may be relief. And–no–none of this makes you a bad person. It makes you human.

If someone says to me that they want their loved one to “go quickly” or “leave soon” or any other euphemism we can use to avoid the actual term “death,” it may be partially from a selfish place–because being a care partner is demanding.

However, I find that more frequently it has nothing to do with the care partner and everything to do with the person with dementia. While some people with dementia live a life worth living right up until the moment they depart, we cannot say that everyone with dementia has a positive quality of life from dementia to death. It’s just not true. Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Lewy-Body Dementia, frontotemporal dementia…these can be cruel diseases.

When we look at our loved ones and see depression, anxiety, and pain (physical and emotional), we may hope for death. Don’t beat yourself up if you pray every night for God to peacefully take your parent, spouse, or sibling. No judgment here. And if you attend a dementia caregiving support group and mention that you are ready for your loved one to pass away, you will see a chorus of nods and knowing looks.

I fully anticipate that this post will offend someone. And I am offended as well. I am offended that dementia causes such suffering that one would at some point hope for death for a family member or friend–and that as a society we haven’t been empathetic or supportive enough to those in the midst of this journey.

Passion in Dementialand (A Post About What Gets Us Excited)

aging, alzheimer's, caregiver, caregiving, dementia, dementialand, , , ,

A little passion goes a long way.

I’m not talking about relationships here. I’m talking about life. No one has passion for everything they do. We all have to do things that we don’t like doing. That’s part of living in the real world. But we gotta have passion for something or we’re sunk.

My passion is dementia. I don’t like dementia itself. In fact, I really don’t like dementia at all, but I get excited (maybe I should say “fired up”) about educating people about dementia and raising awareness. I cannot count the number of times I have been at a party and was engaged in an intriguing conversation about dementia with someone I had just met–except I was the only one “engaged” and probably the only one who found it “intriguing.”

My husband once joked that we might get invited to more social gatherings if I talked less about dementia. Or maybe he wasn’t joking. Someone once told me that everyone should be passionate enough about something to talk about it enthusiastically for a ridiculous amount of time at a party while boring everyone else in the room. Yep. I can do that.

When someone stops me at Target to ask a question about dementia and I don’t abandon my cart immediately to chat, there is a problem. You should worry about me. Maybe you should even considering planning an intervention of some type–because something’s not right.

I get excited about things other than talking about dementia. A part of me wants to tell you I’m passionate about classical music, art history, and expensive red wine, but I’m not. I’m passionate about college basketball, perfecting recipes for low-cal margaritas, and cheap white wine. (I’m known for buying wine on a clearance end cap at Walgreens. In my defense, our Walgreens has an underappreciated selection of alcohol.) And although these passions may seem less than refined to some, there’s no reason they are less valid.

Maybe you get the same feeling from listening to a full symphony that I do when someone on my team makes a three-pointer or takes a charge. It doesn’t really matter what triggers that feeling, as long as something does.

You may not be as passionate about this dementia stuff as I am (or maybe you are because you are reading this blog) and maybe you don’t like college basketball or cheap wine, but my wish for you is that you are passionate about something. For my stepfather who is a retired forester, it’s trees. If he ever shows up at our house and doesn’t sniff our trees to assess their health within an hour of arrival, I’m worried. One of my mom’s most interesting and notable hobbies is tie-dyeing. If you’ve seen pictures of her, you should know she tie-dyed those t-shirts herself. If I ever get out her tie-dye supplies and she says she’s not really interested in tie-dying, there’s an issue. I’m not saying that issue is dementia, although it could be. It might also be depression or perhaps another medical issue–or maybe just a simple rut. But I’m gonna wonder what’s going on.

When we think of dementia, we think of loss of memory. However, the more time I spend with people who have dementia, the more I realize that loss of passion (more than loss of memory) triggers hopelessness. If you wake up in the morning and have something to be excited about–no matter how big or small it is–there’s hope.

When I think about the individuals I know with dementia, I see many that have held onto a passion or developed a new passion. I know a guy who struggles to remember his wife’s name, but when he’s told that the St. Louis Cardinals play tonight, he’s excited. There’s a woman with Alzheimer’s who used to be a master gardener. She still finds joy in watering the flowers at the adult day center she goes to five days a week. And then there’s the family that tried to stop their grandma from reorganizing her closet every single day–because she had just done it the day before. However, organizing was her passion. It’s what she was excited to do when she woke up in the morning.

I find that families sometimes try to shut down the passions of their loved ones with dementia. Maybe they don’t seem purposeful or legitimate. Maybe they aren’t the same passions that the person had ten years ago. But here’s the thing…and this is advice that works both in and out of Dementialand…

We are not qualified to judge the validity of someone else’s passion. 

I have a friend who is a member of what we call the “sandwich generation.” She is sandwiched in caring for her mother with Alzheimer’s and her young children. One day she noticed her daughter and her mother playing together in the sandbox at a park. At first, she thought about how it looked like a typical grandmother-grandchild interaction. Then her young daughter left the sandbox, and grandma stayed there–playing like a child. My friend sat sitting on a bench, watching her own mother play in a sandbox all alone. She wasn’t quite sure what to think. Then she realized her mother was smiling as she sculpted pictures and designs in the sand with a rake.

You rarely see adults playing alone in sandboxes at city parks, so my friend was not entirely comfortable with this. However, as she thought about it more, she realized it really wasn’t all that different from a monk in a Zen garden raking sand as a part of their meditation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that playing in a sandbox is no less valuable than how I spend my free time–watching college kids try to put a ball through a hoop.

She kept bringing her mom and her kids back to that same park. She learned to ignore the people who stared at the smiling woman raking alone in the sandbox.

We are not qualified to judge the validity of someone else’s passion. 

I have a lot of friends (both with and without dementia) who have passions that I don’t really get. I don’t have to get their passions to support them in pursuing their passions. And it doesn’t matter what they get excited about as long as they get excited about something. And who am I to say what they get excited about doing is any less valid than what I get excited about doing?

Because of the impact dementia has on the brain, people with Alzheimer’s and related diseases may become apathetic. Often we say someone has “given up,” but that’s not really the case. It’s an actual symptom. The less scientific explanation is that the part of the brain that control motivation and excitement is damaged. Sometimes I will see someone who has “dimmed.” They can’t get interested in stuff that used to interest them–and they can’t find anything to replace those interests.

People who struggle to remember and understand their surroundings may find it hard to be excited about much of anything as dementia progresses, but there are cases when passion remains although memory may have declined. And when that happens, there is a sort of beauty that amazes me.

I often think of a woman who told me about her mother with dementia that didn’t remember she had grandchildren. Her mother eventually moved in with her family and every single morning would seem a little bit surprised to see a couple of small children in the kitchen. When the kids would call her grandma, she would be over the moon–as excited as, well, a new grandma.

“Oh my goodness!” she would exclaimed. “Are these my beautiful grandchildren?”

She didn’t remember she was a grandma, but she still managed to be pretty passionate about it. The most amazing part of this is that her family chose to focus on her passion for being a grandma rather than her need to be reminded everyday that she was a grandma. Rather than being sad that she didn’t remember her grandchildren, they focused on the look of excitement on her face when she realized those grandkids were her grandkids. It was her enthusiasm that allowed them to cope with her loss of memory.

A little passion goes a long way.

The B Word in Dementialand

alzheimer's, caregiver, caregiving, dementia, dementialand, , , ,

Burden. It means hardship, mental weight, or strain.

It’s a word caregivers at dementia support groups dance around awkwardly.

Caregivers vent. They talk about their lack of privacy or their dearth of support. They discuss their frustrations and challenges. They say they have no time to care for their own health or spend with friends. Every once in while, someone cries.

But then it usually comes back to a statement that goes something like this: “But it’s not a burden. I love her and I’d have it no other way.” Then they all nod knowingly in a sterile way.

One day, a woman made what I thought may have been a total support group faux-pas. She said it was a burden.

Let me start by saying that she was in her late 30’s with a couple of kids and a full-time job. Her mom had younger-onset Alzheimer’s and had moved in. For a few months, her mom had been able to contribute around the house. She cooked and did dishes. She could watch the kids for short amounts of time. She kept the house clean and pulled weeds. But lately her mom needed so much support to provide help that it really wasn’t help at all.

“Caring for mom is becoming such a burden,” she confided to the group. Everyone cringed at the word burden. “This disease is such a burden on our whole family but most of all it’s a burden on Mom.”

Although some members of the group seemed uncomfortable with her using the word burden, there was something about what she said that made me think. The disease is a burden, she said. The person isn’t a burden. And the disease is a burden to the person who has it even more than the caregivers.

We often say that we don’t mind caring for those we love when they are ill, whether that be with Alzheimer’s, cancer, or another disease. We tell others that we do it out of love. We say we wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t doubt that this is the truth.

Yet, we wish that we didn’t have to do it at all. We don’t like it when our loved ones need care. We want to see people we care about doing the things that they enjoy. We hate seeing them in pain, whether it be physical or emotional. And that’s why we should hate Alzheimer’s…and cancer…and ALS…and cystic fibrosis.

What this woman acknowledged was not that her mother was a burden but that Alzheimer’s was a burden. And I agree. Alzheimer’s is a burden in a million different ways. Sometimes I feel like caregivers want to deny that the disease is a burden because if they use the b word it means that they don’t love the person who needs care.

You get to love the person but hate the disease. In fact, I encourage you to hate the disease and to tell everyone you know how much you hate it–because we’ve spent too long ignoring the challenges this disease presents to individuals, families, and society.

I talked to a family a few months ago who had lost their father to Alzheimer’s before his 60th birthday. They had been through a lot. He had been asked to leave (in their words, “kicked out”) of several assisted livings and memory care communities for aggressive and inappropriate behavior. They had gone through his savings and the savings of his children to try to secure him decent care. Although they weren’t entirely sure, his family thought he died because he had aspirated food into his lungs and developed pneumonia.

“Is all of this normal?” one of the daughters asked me. “I feel like our experience with Alzheimer’s has to be worse than the normal experience. If it’s like this for everyone, people would be fighting harder for a cure.”

I’m not sure there is a “normal” with Alzheimer’s, but I hear a lot of stories like this. The disease can be a real nightmare. They didn’t want to care for their father. They’d rather he didn’t need care in the first place. We care for people because we love them but it’s that love that makes caregiving so difficult. And it’s okay that sometimes we get angry and sad because we have to be caregivers, particularly when the person who needs care is young enough that they really shouldn’t need care (in a perfect and fair world, anyway). It doesn’t mean that our loved one is a burden. It means that caregiving is hard.

I’ve talked with many individuals who have an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Keep in mind that this is a life-limiting illness. Eventually Alzheimer’s progresses to the point where life is not sustainable. You will die from the disease or with the disease. I know I may sound harsh in pointing this out, but I still struggle to get individuals to understand it. Life doesn’t end at diagnosis (and I know many individuals living and living well with the disease), but Alzheimer’s is terminal.

However, I’ve never had someone after their diagnosis mention to me that their greatest fear is death. Never. When I talk to individuals who are newly-diagnosed, they almost always say that their fear is becoming a burden to their family. Their family usually jumps in and insists that they could never be a burden.

Sometimes it’s better to acknowledge that they will all be burdened by the disease itself. And they will all be burdened together because that’s the way love works. They didn’t ask for this disease and it’s not going anywhere.

At a memory care community recently, a woman with dementia walked up to me and said, “My brain has a clog and I’m carrying around a ball and chain.” I didn’t ask for further explanation, but I sent a text to myself immediately so I would remember her exact words. It struck me as a better description of dementia than anything I’d read in a textbook.

Her clog? Her ball and chain? Those are her burdens. People with dementia are not burdens. They are burdened.

Before and After in Dementialand (Or Why I Watch TLC and HGTV)

alzheimer's, caregiver, caregiving, dementia, families, lewy body dementia, , , , ,

I was talking to some friends a few weeks back, and the TV show My 600-Pound Life on TLC came up in conversation. It’s a reality show about super-obese individuals who get weight loss surgery and attempt to change their lives for the better.

For some reason, I was hesitant to admit to my friends that I watch the show. I wanted to say I had never heard of it. I wanted to say I had no interest in watching a reality show like that. Yet, the truth is that I have a season pass on my DVR. I started thinking about what it was about this particular show that I enjoy, and I finally realized why it appeals me. I love a good before-and-after.

I used to watch What Not to Wear. I DVR’ed that one as well. I would watch the beginning but then fast forward to the end. I didn’t care about all the shopping and hair talk in the middle. The make-up tips didn’t interest me. I only cared about the before and the after.

I’m really not that into homes, design, or decorating, but I watch a bunch of shows on HGTV. Why? Because I enjoy the transformation. I love the idea of taking something that is in shambles and making it something wonderful. I also have somewhat of a crush on the Property Brother that does the construction. (The one that does the real estate number-crunching stuff just isn’t my type.)

I really get into those house-flipping shows. There’s Flip or Flop, Rehab Addict, Fixer Upper… If you know me at all, you know I have no interest in flipping a house. If I ever talk about flipping a house, please do an intervention. I like the idea of flipping a house, although it’s not something I have the skills to pursue. I just like the notion of transforming something into something much better. It’s about the before-and-after. The before is dull and drab. The after is bright and shiny.

I also watch Intervention on A&E for the before-and-after effect. Someone might be a drug addict before but maybe–just maybe–they can be a productive member of society after. There a certain level of hope in that.

In grad school, I lived with my friend, Lisa. We would watch Intervention every Sunday at 9 pm. Exactly at 9:40 (as the family was just gathering for the intervention), Lisa would say it was time for her to go to bed. It still bothers me that she didn’t get to see the after of all those drug addicts. Why watch if you don’t get a chance to see the after? Couldn’t she stay up past her bedtime just one night a week? (As a side note: Lisa was a pretty great roommate. My only complaints about her are that she wouldn’t watch the end of Intervention with me and she had the willpower to eat only one cookie per day out of a huge bag in the freezer.)

Families impacted by dementia are often caught up in the before-and-after. There are the years before dementia. Then there’s the after. Everyone with dementia is different, and dementia affects everyone in a different way. But there’s no doubt that the after is not the same as the before. (A person with Alzheimer’s once said to me, “I’m still me but I’m a different me.”)

When I meet someone with dementia that has progressed past the earlier stages, I notice that their family often needs to tell me about the before. Maybe she used to be a successful real estate agent who could sell any house in a week. Maybe he was a teacher who touched a thousand lives. Maybe he was a cop or a firefighter who selflessly served his community. Maybe she made the absolute best apple pies on the face of the earth.

And I always listen when they tell me about the before. There is value in knowing about the before. It helps us to connect with an individual with dementia when we know where they’ve been, but I feel like the family is sometimes telling us this for a different reason. They are telling us about the before because the after isn’t enough. They want us to understand that this person is more than what we see in front of us.

I once met a woman with Alzheimer’s who had been a fantastic golfer. She and her husband traveled around the country playing in golf tournaments. Her family told me that she had been incredibly competitive…to the point where she would trash talk other female golfers. Her kids told me that she didn’t make a lot of friends on the golf course, but she won a lot of huge trophies which now decorated her room at the memory care community as reminder of her before. She once told an employee that she won all the trophies for having the largest cow at the state fair. Obviously, they didn’t hold the same meaning to her that they did to her family. They were a before thing. She was in the after.

As her Alzheimer’s progressed, she could no longer go out and play nine holes of golf. Her kids started taking her to the driving range until she was unable to do that. After she moved into memory care, a creative staff member went to Walmart and bought a few items so they could set up a mini-golf course in the hallway. The woman lit up like the staff had not seen before. The ball never went in the hole, but she would putt up and down the hallway for hours.

The staff expected her family to be excited when they arrived and saw how much fun she was having. They were not excited. In fact, they were angry and saddened. They thought it was demeaning that a woman who had once been a competitive golfer was now aimlessly pushing a wiffle ball up and down the hallway with a plastic golf club. They were caught up in comparing the before to the after.

I realized recently that my love of the before-and-after does not extend to working with individuals with dementia. It’s not that I don’t care about the before. It’s fun to hear about a person’s past, and the before holds some keys to what might work when you try to improve the qualify of life for someone with dementia. Most importantly, no one wants their life to be forgotten. We want to know that people will remember what we did and how we did it. We want to know that what we’ve done has been meaningful and worthy of remembering–especially if don’t remember it ourselves.

Although we should remember the before, we also need to let go of it. If we don’t let go of the before, we can’t appreciate the after. This is easier for a professional caregiver than a family caregiver. Professional caregivers don’t have a before in their mind when they work with someone who has dementia. Family caregivers often can’t get the before out of their mind.

I have recently realized that I must not be the only person who enjoys TV shows based on the before-and-after concept. There’s Restaurant: Impossible, Biggest Loser, Extreme Weight Loss, Flea Market Flip….You can probably name many more if you think about.
But there is no before-and-after reality TV show about Dementialand. I’m not sure how many people would tune in. When the after isn’t always bright and shiny, sometimes the show loses its appeal.

Limitations in Dementialand (and Comments on Why I Am Not a Nashville Recording Artist)

aging, alzheimer's, dementia, , ,

When I was growing up, my parents told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. I could do whatever I wanted to do. They said that the sky was the limit. I should aim high and I could accomplish anything in the entire world.

MY PARENTS WERE LIARS.

I cannot accomplish anything in the entire world.

For instance, I’d love to tour and sing with a band. As I child, I spent a lot of time singing in front of the mirror to my favorite tapes (yes, tapes) using a remote control as a microphone. As time went on, it become apparent that my dream of singing with a band would not come true.

I have twice been accused of mocking the national anthem. In my defense, I was just singing it along with a group. However, people have actually thought I was making fun of our country because my rendition of it was so awful. Now I always lip sync the national anthem. It’s just the best way for me to show respect for our country.

Despite being voice-challenged, I love karaoke. In my early 20s, I sang karaoke with a friend at a bar in Des Moines called Miss Kitty’s. After our rendition of “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” by Toby Keith, we walked back to our table. My boyfriend at the time said to my friend, “You sounded really good.” Then he looked at me awkwardly and took a long pause. He finally said, “Elaine, you looked kinda cute up there.”

I won’t ever tour and sing with a band. There will be no record deal for me. I think I started the long journey toward acceptance of this when I hit 30, although every once in a while I relive that childhood fantasy I had to be Reba McEntire and sing “Fancy” to a packed crowd. (By the way, it was only a couple years ago that I realized “Fancy” was about prostitution. I just thought it was about a girl heading off to the big city to grow as a person.)

We tell our kids they can do whatever they want in life. We tell them that they can be whoever they want. And I really think we are all capable of being successful, but we need to pick goals that fit with our strengths. We have to know ourselves, and that means knowing what we are good at–and what we aren’t good it. We gotta figure out what we can do and what we can’t do. Success is about hard work and determination. It’s also about “fit.”

I met a wonderful woman who volunteered for many years at a hospital’s gift shop. The hospital staff loved visiting with her, and she enjoyed helping hospital visitors pick out gifts for friends and family. After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she struggled to run the cash register. A few times she made errors in counting cash at the end of her shift. It was time for the volunteer coordinator to tell her that she just wasn’t able to volunteer at the gift shop anymore. It broke both of their hearts.

To her credit, the volunteer coordinator told her that she didn’t want to lose such a valuable member of their team. They had a long conversation and another plan was put in place. The woman would volunteer for the gift shop in a different way. She would knit scarves, hats, and mittens. Then her husband would deliver her work to the gift shop to be sold. All proceeds would go to the hospital’s pediatric cancer unit.

No matter how determined that woman had been to keep running the cash register at the gift shop, it just wasn’t a fit for her any longer. And, to be truthful, there may be a time in her future when knitting for charity isn’t a fit for her. It’s not a matter of strength or will. Our skills and capabilities change. That’s true for people with dementia, and it’s true for the rest of us.

The challenge is accepting those limitations and finding goals that make the most of present abilities. We all struggle to accept our limitations. In other words, sometimes we need to let go. We need to let go of what we can’t do in order to fully appreciate what we can do. And that’s not easy. There are times we need to push hard to pursue our dreams, and there are times when we need to realize that we could make more of a difference in this world if we put our talents toward a different dream. However, sometimes accepting our limitations and letting go means that we have make uncomfortable admissions to ourselves. It might mean we have to admit that we’re not good enough at biology to go to med school, that we aren’t genetically made to run a marathon in under three hours, or that our Alzheimer’s disease is progressing and there’s nothing we can do to stop this.

With dementia it may be more of a struggle to accept limitations because abilities change quickly and the disease itself may make it difficult to have insight about one’s functioning. Someone with dementia may also forget their limitations. They may forget they can’t drive or forget they no longer go to work everyday.

If I’m being honest, I sometimes forget my limitations as well. About once a year, I decided I’m going to sing karaoke. I’m reminded very quickly of why I am a college professor and not a music sensation. And it’s a good way to affirm that I’ve made some wise choices along my career path. Thank goodness I didn’t move to Nashville when I was 18 like my heart was telling me to.

Changing the Environment in Dementialand (and How I Broke One of My Worst Habits Ever)

alzheimer's, caregiving, dementia, nursing home, , ,

Recently I realized I had developed a really bad habit. Not just bad but dangerous. I had started glancing at my phone while driving. I’d hear it buzz and couldn’t resist taking a look to see who had sent me a text or email. I wasn’t that person driving in traffic with my phone in my hand, but I wasn’t proud that I couldn’t drive the 12 1/2 minutes home without looking at my phone at stoplights.

So I tried to stop. And I couldn’t. It had become a habit, and habits can be hard to break. I wasn’t going to be able to easily extinguish my urge my look at my phone, so I was going to have to change my environment.

I made a decision to silence my phone and put it on the floor of the backseat where I could not see or hear it. For a couple of days, I found myself wanting to look at it. Eventually I stopped thinking about it as much. Putting my phone out of reach and out of sight (literally) made all the difference.

I decided to try this strategy after thinking about the advice I give many family and professional caregivers who have loved ones with dementia. I am always using the phrase “Change the environment.” Changing the environment is easier than changing a person’s impulses, thoughts, and behaviors. In other words, putting my phone where I couldn’t reach it was easier than not reaching for my phone when it was on the seat next to me.

At a caregiver support group, I spoke to a woman who said that her husband with Alzheimer’s was destroying things around their home. For instance, he had stood on a chair, taken the clock off the wall, and yanked the hands off of the clock’s face. He had also slammed some of her collectible dolls onto the floor, cracking off their heads. One day he even took some framed photos of the wall and literally threw them out the back door. She found herself losing patience with him.

She asked what she could do to get him to stop. I only had one idea. She needed to change the environment. I suggested she take anything she found valuable, meaningful, or important and place it in one room of the house. She could then use a lock system to keep him out of this room. As long as the items were around and available to him, he was going to continue to destroy them (and she was going to yell at him). As I saw it, the only option was to change the environment.

I gave the same advice to staff at a nursing home recently. A woman with dementia had a room that overlooked a fantastic garden. In the middle of the garden was a large concrete rabbit. The woman thought the rabbit was a stray cat, and she spent a lot of time worrying about this stray cat. She didn’t know if someone was feeding it or if it had a home. All day long, she tried to go outside to help the cat. It was to the point that the woman was sometimes in tears because she wanted to check on the cat but couldn’t get outside. She was wondering around the facility in hysterics. Obviously, telling her the concrete rabbit wasn’t a cat was not helpful. Again, I only had one suggestion–change the environment.

I asked an employee if it was possible to move the concrete rabbit. She explained that it was purchased specifically for that spot. Then I proposed another idea…move the resident to room where she could not see the rabbit. In the end, they did move the rabbit. I guess that was the easier option. They changed the environment.

Changing the environment can set us all up for success. I’m not just referring to those with dementia. If we don’t want to be tempted to get ice cream on our way home from work everyday, we should modify our route so we don’t drive by Dairy Queen. If we don’t want to spend more than $50 on a trip to Target, we should take $50 cash and leave the credit cards at home. If we are trying to curb drinking, we should stay out of bars. It’s easier to modify the environment than to depend on our willpower and reasoning when challenges arise.

When it comes to “challenging behaviors” in dementia, sometimes changing the environment seems to be an obvious solution, but it doesn’t occur to the people closest to the situation. I once spoke to a woman whose mom had Alzheimer’s and was hospitalized for a urinary tract infection. A friend had sent beautiful (and likely expensive) flowers to the hospital. The flowers sat in a large vase in the corner of the room. However, the mother thought the flowers were a scary clown face. She kept complaining about the clown in the corner staring her down.

The daughter and the nurses kept bringing the flowers over to show her that they were indeed flowers rather than a clown face. Of course, she was not convinced and become more and more agitated. Then a 10-year-old relative stopped in. He sized up the situation, picked up the flowers, and slammed them in the trash. Then he yelled, “I killed Scary Clown!” Problem solved. (In retrospect, he could’ve taken them out to the nurses’ station, but I guess he had a taste for the dramatic.)

It’s much easier to move a concrete rabbit than to convince a woman with dementia that the concrete rabbit is not a stray cat who might be hungry. It’s much easier to put valuables in another room than to nag a guy with Alzheimer’s about why he shouldn’t demolish them. And it’s easier for me to put my iPhone in the backseat than to try to resist the urge to look at it while driving.

If you interact with someone who has dementia, consider changing the environment in particularly in response to behaviors that might be harmful and dangerous. If you have a goal or are trying to break a bad habit, consider changing your environment to set yourself up for success.

Oh, and if you can’t help but look at your phone while driving, throw it in the backseat. If that doesn’t work, consider the trunk.